Plastic-bag bill will be debated fully and in public: Opinion

The thesis of Ralph Shaffer’s piece that Senate Bill 270 would be jammed through the Legislature without public review is absurd.

The measure will be in print for over a month before any action is taken. Then the Assembly policy committee followed by the fiscal committee will hold public hearings and vote on the measure. After those two public hearings, SB 270 will be debated on the Assembly floor, after which that process will be repeated in the Senate.

All told, it will take at least six months, four public hearings and two floor votes for SB 270 to work its way through the legislative process.

SB 270 represents a long debated, carefully crafted win for both jobs and the environment. Now that the compromise has been reached, it will be fully and publicly reviewed in both houses of the Legislature.

Dan Reeves is chief of staff for state Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles.